Tlkirsten's List: English - grade 9: World Literature

Author: Ursula Poznanski (Germany)

Description:
"Nick Dunmore is receives a mysterious computer game as a gift. You can't buy it or download it from anywhere and it has strict codes for its players. When Nick is given a deadly mission by the game, his real life and the online world begin to blur."

Genre: "Cyberthrillers; German fiction; Suspense stories"

Originally written in German, translated to English

Available at Stratford Hall? Yes, 1 copy.

Author:
Marston, Elsa (American-born, but husband is Lebanese and has lived and worked in the Middle East for many years)

Description:
"A collection of eight stories, most previously published in other anthologies, about what it is like to grow up in the Middle East today."

Genre:
Coming-of-age stories; Short stories

Author:
Remarque, Erich Maria, 1898-1970 (German)

Note: descriptions of violence

Note: This book may be studied in the Diploma Programme

Available at Stratford Hall library? Yes (1 copy)

Description:
"The testament of Paul Baumer, who enlists with his classmates in the German army of World War I, illuminates the savagery and futility of war."

Genre:
Adult books for young adults; Antiwar stories; First person narratives; German fiction; Literary fiction; War stories

author:
Esquivel, Laura, 1950- (Mexico)

Note: This book may be studied in the Diploma Programme

Available at Stratford Hall library? Yes (3 copies)

Description:
"At the beginning of the 20th century, Tita, the youngest of three daughters, is expected to serve her mother for the rest of her life, but in order to show her love to Pedro, who is engaged to her sister, Tita cooks for him."

Genre:
Cookbook novels; Love stories; Magic realist fiction; Mexican fiction; Spanish fiction

Author:
Achebe, Chinua (Nigeria)

Note: This book may be studied in the Diploma Programme

Available at Stratford Hall library? Yes (2 copies)

Description:
"Traces the growing friction between village leaders and Europeans determined to save the heathen souls of Africa. But its hero, a noble man who is driven by destructive forces, speaks a universal tongue."

Genre:
Historical fiction

Author:
Steinhofel, Andreas (Germany)

Note: deals with issues of teenage sexuality.

Description:
"As he works through his often difficult relationships with his single mother, distant twin sister, his first boyfriend, and an odd assortment of friends, a teenage boy learns about the wounds and healing brought by love."

Genre:
Coming-of-age stories; First person narratives; German fiction; Realistic fiction

Author:
Spillebeen, Geert (Belgium)

Description:
"In 1915, mortally wounded in Loos, France, eighteen-year-old John Kipling, son of writer Rudyard Kipling, remembers his boyhood and the events leading to what is to be his first and last World War I battle."

Genre:
War stories

Author:
Gallego Garcia, Laura, 1977- (Spain, takes place in ancient Arabia)

Description:
"Motivated by jealousy and the desire to receive acclaim as a great poet, Walid ibn Huyr, a prince of ancient Arabia, commits acts which completely change the course of his life."

Genre:
Historical fiction; Poetry; Spanish fiction

Author:
Pausewang, Gudrun (Germany)

Description:
"During the closing months of World War II, a fifteen-year-old German girl must decide whether or not to help an escaped Russian prisoner of war, despite the serious consequences if she does so."

Genre:
German fiction; Historical fiction; Suspense stories; War stories

Author:
Lat (Malaysia)

Description:
"Relates the life experiences, from birth to beginning boarding school, of a boy growing up on a rubber plantation in rural Malaysia."

Genre:
Autobiographical comic books; Autobiographies (Teenage literature); Biography; Comic books; Graphic novels (Nonfiction)

Author:
Jansen, Hanna, 1946- (Germany, but about events in Rwanda)

Available at Stratford Hall library? Yes (1 copy)
Description:
"Jeanne and her family, who are Tutsis living in Rwanda during a time of civil war, flee their home in hopes of evading Hutu soldiers as political events threaten to overtake them."

Genre:
German fiction; Historical fiction; War stories

Author:
Greif, Jean-Jacques (France)

Note: some graphic details

Description:
"Moshe Wisniak, a poor Polish Jew, uses his physical strength and cleverness, plus luck, to help him survive the horrors he is subjected to in the concentration camps of World War II. Based on the life of Moshe Garbarz."

Genre:
Historical fiction; Jewish fiction

Author:
Bondoux, Anne-Laure (France, takes place in Chile)

Description:
"A young boy, Paolo, and the man who murdered his parents, Angel, gradually become like father and son as they live and work together on the remote Chilean farm where Paolo was born."

Genre:
French fiction

Author:
Wahl, Mats, 1945- (Sweden)

Description:
"A Swedish teenager is assaulted and killed, but returns as a ghost to find his killer."

Genre:
First person narratives; Mystery stories

Author:
Uehashi, Nahoko (Japan)

Illustrator:
Shimizu, Yuko, 1965- - ill.

Description:
"The wandering warrior Balsa is hired to protect Prince Chagum from both a mysterious monster and the prince's father, the Mikado."

Genre: fantasy fiction

Author:
Michaelis, Antonia (Germany, but story takes place in India)

Description:
Sold to be the eighth wife of a rich and cruel merchant, Safia, also called Raka, tries to escape her fate by telling stories of Farhad the thief, his companion Nitish the white tiger, and their travels across India to retrieve a famous jewel that will save a kidnapped princess from becoming the bride of a demon king.

Genre:
Fantasy fiction; German fiction

Author:
Alshalabi, Firyal (Kuwait)

Description:
"On the eve of a planned trip to Disney World, Danah's world is turned upside down when Iraq invades her country Kuwait."

Genre:
War stories

Author:
Mazer, Anne

Description:
"A collection of short stories from around the world including such authors as Valentin Rasputin, Yasunari Kawabata, and Toni Cade Bambara."

Available in Stratford Hall library: Yes (1 copy)

Genre:
Children's stories; Coming-of-age stories; Short stories

Author:
Marston, Elsa (American-born, but husband is Lebanese and has lived and worked in the Middle East for many years)

Description:
"A collection of five stories portraying Arab life in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, and Iraq today."

Genre:
Coming-of-age stories; Short stories

Author:
Allende, Isabel (Chile, Peru)

Description:
"When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries to avert disaster for the Indians."

Genre:
Adventure stories; Chilean fiction; Coming-of-age stories; Magic realist fiction; Spanish fiction